Points to note when Entering data in the Author and Illus/Alternate fields

The asterix (*) character has a special significance when included in the author field as described here.

The author field can be used in conjunction with the Alt/Illus field to alter the appearance and sort order of the records when they are output (to the Web, via Email, to Word catalogues or to plain text files). This functionality is included to accommodate cataloging items that do not fit neatly into the Author, title scenario.

Handling atypical inventory items and sorting

The author field has a few unique features associated with it which are useful for handling items which do not fall into the norm as far as cataloging is concerned. Some examples of this are books without authors, books in which the author is known but not cited on the cover page, and books in which you deem the illustrator or the subject matter to be more important than the author. This is particularly important when you want to produce a catalogue or list (hardcopy or online) and wish to make the reader aware of the subject of the book as opposed to its obscure author. An example might be a book about Hemingway by John Smith. Collectors may be interested in books by and about Hemingway but may not know that John Smith wrote a book about Hemingway. This is particularly important on the Internet where potential customers may like to be made aware of such an item but will not retrieve it searching for Hemingway as an author. (Note that the use of keywords may overcome this problem on Internet databases, if keywords are correctly implemented, but these will not help for hardcopy catalogues unless an extensive cross index is provided. Even then the potential customer’s attention may not be drawn to the item) The same applies to books on cookery or gardening where the subject in many cases is more important than the author.

When catalogues, web pages or other output is produced you can force the aforementioned book by John Smith to be sorted under Hemingway, or the gardening book to be sorted under gardening instead of under the obscure author. This can be accomplished as follows.

When an asterix (*) is included in the author field the following applies:

If the asterix is preceded immediately by a right bracket, ) or ], when the record is output a corresponding left bracket is appended to the start of the author field and the asterix is deleted. For example Gardening]* J. B. Priestly is output as [Gardening] J. B. Priestly and is sorted under gardening, if sorting is applied. This technique can also be used to accommodate items where the author is not cited but is known.

If the asterix is preceded immediately by a forward slash, /, the / is removed from the text in the author field when output . i.e Gardening/* J. B. Priestly is output as Gardening* J. B. Priestly and is sorted under gardening, if sorting is applied. In this way you can include an asterix in the output if desired.

If the asterix is not preceded immediately by a right bracket, ) or ], or forward slash,/, the text in the author field preceding the asterix and the asterix itself are deleted when the record is output. i.e. Gardening* J. B. Priestly is output as J. B. Priestly but is sorted under gardening, if sorting is applied.

Have a look at some examples of how to use the asterix in the author field to your advantage.